BIDDLE AND THE "RANDOLPH."
There were two men in Hopkins's squadron who far excelled all the others
in those qualities of energy, courage, and intelligence that are most
required in a naval officer. These were Biddle, the captain of the
"Andrew Doria," and Paul Jones, the lieutenant of the "Alfred." Jones
was at this time twenty-eight years old; the son of a Scotch gardener,
he was born and brought up on the shores of the Solway Frith. Across the
Frith lay the prosperous seaport of Whitehaven; and the boy when twelve
years old was apprenticed to a merchant of the place, who traded with
America, and his first voyage had been to Virginia. At a later time he
had served in a slaver; but leaving this distasteful occupation, he
became the master of a ship in the West India trade, and finally had
drifted to Virginia, where he had made his home two years before the
outbreak of the war.
After the squadron returned to New London, Jones was given command of
the brig "Providence," and in August he set off on a cruise to the
eastward. His ship was small, but she was smart and handy, and Jones was
the man to make her do her best. Presently he fell in with two frigates
of the enemy; but he got away from them after an exciting chase. A few
days afterward, while his ship was hove to, and his crew were fishing,
another English frigate came up,--the "Milford." Hastily calling his men
to their stations, he started off to try his speed with the new-comer,
for she was far too strong for him to attack or even to resist. He soon
found that he could outsail her, which was just as good; and shortening
sail, he allowed the "Milford" to come up a little. Then he started
ahead again, and so continued backing and filling, just to tease her, as
it were. The frigate turned and gave him a broadside which fell short,
and which he answered in derision by ordering a marine to fire a musket.
Finally he left the "Milford" and went on his way to the fishing
settlements in the eastern provinces, capturing the enemy's merchantmen
right and left, wherever he could find them. He raided the harbor of
Canso, to the great alarm of the inhabitants, and broke up the fishery.
Then he crossed over to Île Madame, where he destroyed the shipping. By
this time his ship was so loaded down with prisoners that he was obliged
to put about for home, where he arrived safely in October, having been
out six weeks and taken sixteen prizes.
After a month in port Jones started on a second cruise. This time he
took with him the "Providence" and also the "Alfred,"--the ship of which
he had been first lieutenant on the expedition to Nassau. Another raid
was made on Canso, and another batch of prizes was captured. One of
these, the "Mellish," had a cargo of clothing which was intended for the
enemy's troops, but which was needed even more by our own army, at this
time just beginning its winter campaign. When he came home from this
second cruise, Jones thought he had shown by what he had done that he
deserved a better ship, and Congress thought so too; and after some
little delay he was appointed to the new sloop-of-war "Ranger," which
was building at Portsmouth, and in which during the following year he
entered upon a new and larger field of operations.
[Illustration: NICHOLAS BIDDLE.]
About the time that Jones took command of the "Providence," his
companion in the squadron, Nicholas Biddle, was sent out in the brig
"Doria" on a cruise to the Banks. Biddle was at this time twenty-five
years old. He was born in Philadelphia, and had begun life as a sailor
before the mast at the age of fourteen. On his second voyage he was
wrecked in the West Indies, and narrowly escaped with his life.
Afterward he went to London, and in 1770, when a war was threatened
between Great Britain and Spain, he obtained an appointment as
midshipman in the Royal Navy under Captain Stirling. War did not break
out, however, and young Biddle joined the exploring expedition under
Commodore Phipps, which sought to reach the North Pole by the way of
Spitzbergen. On the same expedition was another youngster, by name
Horatio Nelson, who was destined afterward to lead the English fleet to
victory at the battles of the Nile and Trafalgar. After the return of
Phipps's ships, Biddle left the navy and came home to take his part in
the war that was now beginning. His first commission, from the Committee
of Safety in Philadelphia, was signed by its president, Benjamin
Franklin, and appointed him "Captain of the Provincial Armed Boat called
the 'Franklin,' fitted out for the protection of the Province of
Pennsylvania, and the Commerce of the River Delaware against all hostile
enterprises, and for the defence of American Liberty." But when Congress
formed its first squadron, under Commodore Hopkins, he was transferred
to the Continental Navy. The "Doria," which Biddle commanded on the
expedition to Nassau, and which he was now to take on her first
independent cruise, carried an armament of fourteen 4-pounders, which,
as I have said, were little better than popguns, and of course unfit for
fighting with a ship-of-war. Her crew numbered one hundred men. On her
way out, the "Doria" made three prizes. Off Newfoundland she captured
two transports, with four hundred troops on board. Any ordinary man
would have found it a difficult task to dispose of so many prizes and
prisoners; but Biddle had served in the navy, and he knew what
discipline meant. Manning the captured ships from his crew, he filled
their places on board the "Doria" with prisoners, and started to return
home. On the way back, six more vessels were taken. These were manned in
the same way, by stripping the brig of her sailors and taking the best
of the prisoners to do their work. Finally the "Doria" arrived at
Philadelphia, with all her prisoners and with only five men left of her
original crew. It would have been hard to find another man in the
service, even if it were Paul Jones himself, who could have kept in
check such a ship's company as that. One of the prizes was wrecked, and
another recaptured, but the rest got safely into port.
Congress now began to realize that this young fellow of five-and-twenty
was one of the very best officers in its employ; and indeed if he had
been made at the start the commander-in-chief of our forces afloat,
instead of an old weather-beaten merchant captain like Hopkins, his
experience and skill and impetuous bravery would beyond a doubt have
raised the navy to the highest point of excellence of which its scanty
resources were capable. He was appointed to command the "Randolph,"
which had lately been launched at Philadelphia. She was one of the best
of the new ships, but she had been hurriedly built,--too hurriedly, as
was shown on her first cruise; for no sooner had Biddle got out of sight
of land than a gale sprang up, and all her masts went by the board. To
add to his difficulties, he discovered a mutinous spirit in his crew,
several of whom were prisoners who had volunteered for the cruise. This
was promptly checked, for the captain, as we have seen, was not a man to
allow insubordination; and after rigging jury-masts he carried the ship
safely into Charleston. Here she was refitted, and from here she again
started on a cruise. She had been out only a few days when she captured
the "True Briton," a ship of twenty guns, and three West Indiamen that
formed her convoy. The captain of the "True Briton" had been looking
for the "Randolph,"--at least so he said,--and as the latter approached
him, he received her with a warm fire; but the "Randolph" only waited
till she got within pistol-shot, when she fired a single gun, and the
English captain incontinently struck his colors.
Returning once more to Charleston with her prizes, the "Randolph"
remained there for some time blockaded by the enemy's squadron. At last
the State of South Carolina fitted out a force of vessels to raise the
blockade and cruise with the "Randolph" under Biddle's command. Contrary
winds and the want of a high tide detained them for some time in
Rebellion Roads, and when they got over the bar the enemy had
disappeared; so they set out in quest of adventures.
The squadron had cruised for more than a month in the Atlantic with no
incident worthy of note, when on the 7th of March, 1778, being then to
the eastward of Barbadoes, at one o' clock in the afternoon a large ship
was seen in the distance, gradually approaching. By three o'clock she
had come near enough for Biddle to make out that she was a
ship-of-the-line. Knowing that the stranger must be an Englishman,--she
proved to be the "Yarmouth," of sixty-four guns,--and knowing too that
the "Randolph," even with the support of the smaller ships, was no match
for her powerful battery, he signalled to the fleet to make sail. All
the ships obeyed except the "General Moultrie," which obstinately
refused to leave her place, and remained hove to, giving no sign of
moving. This blundering conduct of the "Moultrie's" captain left Biddle
no choice but to abandon his consort or to remain and fight what seemed
to be a hopeless battle. He boldly chose the latter course; and as the
"Yarmouth" ranged up on his weather quarter, he hoisted the American
flag and opened on her with a succession of furious broadsides, giving
four to the enemy's one, and inflicting dangerous wounds upon her sails
and rigging. A few minutes after the action began, Biddle received a
shot in the thigh. As his people, alarmed, gathered around him, he
raised himself up, telling them it was only a slight touch, and calling
for a chair seated himself on the quarter-deck, where the surgeon came
to dress his wound. Here he was vigorously directing the course of the
battle, and in spite of the disparity between the two ships he was
gradually getting the advantage, when suddenly, without a moment's
warning, the magazine of the "Randolph" blew up, scattering spars, hull,
guns, officers, and men in a mass of fragments over the waters.
None ever knew how the accident happened. The other ships, seeing the
disaster, made off as fast as they could; but the "Yarmouth" was too
much disabled to follow them, and they made good their escape. Five days
after the action the English ship, still cruising about the spot, came
upon a floating piece of the "Randolph's" wreck, to which four of her
crew were still clinging. They had been drifting in this way for four
days with no sustenance except the rain-water which they had managed to
collect. These were all the survivors of that fatal battle,--a battle
which lost us not only a fine frigate, but, what was far worse, one of
our best and most gallant officers.